Arachnids/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Moby and Tim are moving things in a storage shed. They pick up a large box and Tim squeals in surprise. TIM: Aaah! He looks down. A group of small black bugs run across the floor. Moby covers his mouth and laughs. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oh, like you're so into spiders. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, scorpions are cool. Can you tell me about them please, and other insects like them? From, Samuel P. Well first of all, scorpions aren't insects. An image shows a silhouette of a scorpion. TIM: They belong to a group of arthropods called arachnids. Ticks, spiders, and mites are arachnids, too. A tree diagram shows the arachnids Tim names. TIM: Arachnids are some of the most adaptable animals around. You can find them all over the world. Images show a scorpion, a barn spider, and a daddy longlegs. TIM: There are over seventy thousand different species. An image shows white drawings of arachnids on a black background. TIM: Like insects, arachnids have a hard exoskeleton and jointed limbs. An image shows a spider and an ant. TIM: But unlike insects they have eight legs instead of six, no antennae or wings; and a two-segment body. An arachnid's abdomen contains its internal organs. The mouth, eyes, and limbs are attached to the cephalothorax. An image shows an arachnid. The abdomen is much larger than the cephalothorax part of the body. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, there is a lot of stuff going on there. Besides the four pairs of legs, the cephalothorax is a pair of pinchers called pedipalps and a big pair of fangs called chelicerae. The pedipalps are for grabbing things, but they can also sense smells and vibrations. An image shows an extreme close-up of a spider's face. The pinchers and fangs light up as Tim describes them. TIM: The fangs often contain venom to stun or kill prey, but sometimes they're used for digging holes in the ground. An animation shows a spider stalking a fly. An image shows a hole in the ground, surrounded by spider webs. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Hey, right. Scorpions have venomous tails. That curved tail looks really nasty, but the truth is, most scorpion stings are weaker than bee stings! An image shows a scorpion moving across a wooden surface. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, they don't really need to be any stronger. Scorpions use their stings to catch food, which is mostly other bugs. Most scorpions live in desert climates, and they like to hunt at night. An animation shows a scorpion crawling across the desert at night. TIM: Spiders, on the other hand, can be found just about anywhere. They're by far the most common type of arachnid. An image shows white spiders on a black background. TIM: And they're the only arachnid with spinnerets, little glands in their abdomens that make silk. A diagram shows the location of spinnerets on a spider’s abdomen. TIM: They use their silk to trap prey, form egg sacs, and to move around. Animations show a fly trapped in a spider web, a spider's egg sac, and a spider lowering itself on a single strand of web. MOBY: Beep. Moby holds a daddy longlegs out to Tim. TIM: Oh, that's not a spider. It's an opilione. An image shows a daddy longlegs. TIM: We call them daddy longlegs because their legs are so long compared to their bodies. Moby flicks a tick from Tim's ear. TIM: Ooh, thanks. Mites and ticks, or acarina, are another type of arachnid. An image shows ticks and mites. TIM: Most are pretty small, like under one centimeter, and they feed off of the blood or sap of other organisms. You've got to be careful of these guys. Their bites don't always hurt, but some of them can transmit nasty diseases. Two animations shows a tick and a mite eating. Their bodies enlarge as they eat. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Hey, that's a good point. Even if spiders and scorpions and other arachnids freak you out a little, they're really important to humans because they help control the insect population. Tim looks up to a corner of the ceiling, where there is a spider web. TIM: Hey, I bet my mom wouldn't want us to clean up these cobwebs if she knew that. MOBY: Beep. Tim sighs. TIM: Oh, you're probably right. Moby hands Tim a broom. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Science Transcripts